President Zalman Shazar returned to Israel today from a state visit to Nepal. He was the target of a demonstration by 10 Arab students during his airplane’s stopover at Calcutta, India.
Declaring he had brought “regards to an honest, industrious and proud nation, ” the President minimized the chilly treatment he received from Indian officials during his stops in India. India has recognized Israel but never exchanged ambassadors with it. He said that Indian authorities could have restrained the demonstrators in Calcutta, but did not do so, adding that the demonstrators “wanted publicity and they got it.”
In Nepal, he said, thousands of Nepalese “lined the streets as we passed, and we realised everybody shared our friendship. ” Israelis are “doing wonders in Nepal in education, building, planning and agriculture and our people are liked by the Nepalese,” he declared.
Meanwhile, a joint communique was issued today by King Mehendra of Nepal and President Shazar. The statement welcomed the Soviet-sponsored truce agreement between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir dispute, which was negotiated in Soviet Tashkent. The communique said that such “positive steps” should be followed in other tension-affected areas of the world.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
